Bit of a shame not to be playing Challenge Tour this week, especially after booking my flights. But as Laura tells me: “everything happens for a reason” and to be coming back to a place with so many good memories is never a bad thing.
In 6 visits to Bovey Castle I have won twice, had 3 top tens and 1 missed cut, and it’s great to be playing an event as defending Champion.
I missed out on playing Challenge Tour this week in Belgium because of the European Tour event being played at Wentworth. As that’s such a big event on the schedule the players graduating from the CT last year and the Q-School graduates could not get in, so to keep playing they have dropped backed to play CT, so I’ve had to do exactly the same and drop back and play Europro.
That’s how it works and everyone I speak to can’t believe that you can win the OOM the year before and not get to play all the events. But if you play well in the events you do get in, there’s nothing to worry about!
Sounds easy…………………
Anyway, down to business! After a good practice day Monday, I was up nice and early Tuesday for a hour on the range and to meet my team for the pro-am.
They might tell a different story but I really enjoyed the day, they were great company, and really fun to play with. We did not score great as a team and I didn’t really pull my weight, shooting 72 (+2), with the team finishing -3.
After a great BBQ at the Castle and a few hours practice it was back to our digs for a relaxing evening before an early start for rd 1! (8.24am)
RD1: what’s so great about this daft game we play is that everyone can relate to it whatever level they play at! I don’t know how many times I say “it’s the best game in the world, but also the worst” – but I’m sure many will agree.
Everybody has expectations (rightly or wrongly, I’m sure you do) and everyone gets frustrated when it does not go their way. Rd 1 for me was summed up in the above paragraph. I started really nicely only to let some good golf get away from me and finish the round +5.
It was disappointing but I was sure that I would be trying my best again the next day to shoot the best score possible and hopefully be playing Friday in Rd 3.
RD2: the sole purpose of this round was to go out and enjoy it!! Over the last four rounds of golf I have played I have let it get to me! Playing with Stu Archibald, Adam Wootton, + Steve (my caddy) and Lee (Stu’s caddy) we had a good laugh out there.
Our running joke was to see who could hit the flag the most during the day, myself and Adam had ‘flag hunted’ yesterday so Stu had some catching up to do! Especially after I Slam Dunked it from 104 yards with a sand wedge on the 3rd!!
No bounce, straight in for eagle! To Stu’s credit though he did fight back and hit the material of the flag on the 5th! Not bad at all!
I went on to post a score of -2, much better than Rd1, with lots of good stuff to take to La Gomera in the Canaries next week for the Challenge Tour event! I did end up missing the cut by 2 shots, but I was glad I played as it’s kept me competitive and has ironed out a few issues in the game.
Now it’s a five hour drive back home, and I can’t wait to enjoy the weekend in the sun with the family!
Also, one last photo to amuse you all, it certainly kept us all smiling walking off 18th to see this driving error!
They did not see the 4ft drop!!
Thanks again for all the support.
I’ve heard next week is a pretty amazing course, so hopefully there will be plenty of decent photos to show you.
Very best wishes.
Chris